Curiosity and Nadir
by Snowthistle
Summary: A dead Nepeta wanders through the dreambubbles and finds Eridan crawling about with half of his body. Includes godtier!Aradia, Equius, and Feferi. Oneshot.


**Warning: Mentions of blood, entrails, murder, death**

* * *

Black.

I open my eyes to an endless sea of darkness as black as the caliginous quadrant. Slowly, I sit up and examine my blood stained hands as a sharp pain momentarily shoots through my left wrist and my head, and blood pools beneath me. My name is Nepeta Leijon, and I am dead. The murderous clown is gone, but my moirail is nowhere in sight. It's my fault that this happened in the furst place because I decided not to listen to Equius and explore the vents; curiosity killed the cat. I don't know how I'm going to explain this to him if I find him again. Maybe I'll even find Aradia if I'm lucky, but I won't be able to do that if I just sit here doing nothing.

I rise from where I sit and begin to walk straight ahead. I'll admit that I have absolutely no idea where I'm going, and everything is quiet aside from the low hums and whispers of the horrorterrors speaking to each other. I hope to find the dreambubbles soon, but it's hard to tell if I'm close to anything. It's strange that I can see my entire body as if I were in a room with a spotlight on me, and I'm not radiating light either. Everything around me is dark like a cloudy night aside from the lighter silhouettes of horrorterror tentacles. I never understood why the others were afraid of them. Most of them appear pretty terrifying, but they're actually pretty nice even if they can kill. Purrhaps it's because they're friends with Feferi's lusus Gl'bgolyb. Gl'bgolyb is probably less terrifying now that she can't kill us with her voice anymore.

I find myself wandering fur about an hour-except it's hard to keep time when you're dead without a watch- through the inky blackness, and I feel tentacles brush past me on occasion. Soon I find myself walking past giant statues of colossal horrorterrors as well as horrorterrors only a few feet larger than me. I briefly glance down to find myself walking on a dimly lit stone path. A palace slowly rises in the distance as I walk, and I hear the faint trickling of water. I wonder if I'm in a dreambubble of some sort, so I press on towards the strange palace decorated with stony tentacles and furrocious faces of horrorterrors. As I come closer to the entrance, I briskly sprint up the stairs in excitement, and I find myself purring with enthusiasm. The palace doors are huge, and I approach with caution.

Fur some reason the door handle is cool, and I slowly open it to peer inside. It's dimly lit with a pale, blue light, but at least I can see a little more. I cautiously step inside and look around curiously at the stone pillars wrapped with carved tentacles. The ground appears to be marble or some kind of fancy rock flooring. A line of carpet about three feet long stretches across the marble and up a staircase with more horrorterror carvings, and I decide to ascend the stairs. I casually drag my hand on the smooth railing, and huge tapestries catch my eye. The dark threads interweave and depict more horrorterrors with beaks like featherbeasts and a thousand lookstubs. Some passages are written in Eldritch with something poetic, but another tapestry catches my attention in my periferal vision. A single horrorterror of a beautiful white is surrounded by small black roses and a laurel wreath with her name in a shining silver beneath. _Gl'bgolyb_. Cautiously, I bring a hand up and slowly touch the fabric. This isn't fashion, but I wonder what Kanaya would think of this fabric because it's very pretty and nice to touch. It's not fur or anything like that, but I like feeling it just the same.

After admiring the tapestry, I turn and begin walking down the hallway. Some time passes by before I sense someone or something is following me. I ignore it for a little bit, but it sounds like someone is calling out for me to wait. I'd rather not wait if it's something terrifying, but surely ghosts can't be killed right? Still, the voice persists, and I increase my speed out of mild panic. I just wish there was some familiar face around here fur reassurance. Fur a moment, I decide to stop and allow whatever it is that's following me to catch up. Maybe it's not harmless like I think it is, so I suppose I could give it a chance.

Soft groaning sounds behind me, and the voice sounds a little familiar. It also sounds like something is dragging along the floor, so I slowly turn around to see what it is. Almost immediately, I regret turning around and stopping right where I was fur that matter. I guess beggars can't be choosers in the afterlife, but here he was. The Prince of Hope was dragging himself across the carpet looking absolutely undignified as he did so with what appeared to be his entrails because it was apparent that his torso was severed in half. Well, this was an interesting turn of events. A seadweller was severed in half and was ungracefully dragging the upper half of his torso towards an olive-blooded midblood. This was actually pretty amewsing to watch, so I stood where I was casually entertained. Once he was about a foot away from me, he looked up at me through his ridiculously large, thick hipster frames and gave an embarrassed smile.

"Hello, Nep," he greeted.

No.

Absolutely not.

I should've listened to Equius.

"ac cannot believe what she is seeing with her undead eyes. A fish prince lies upon his torso with his intestines trailing behind him and looks up at the olive rogue."

"Shut up, Nep, at least you didn't get chainsawed in half by a psychotic, jade-blooded, rainbow drinker."

"Oh so it was Kanaya who murdered you."

"Yeah yeah yeah I messed up and did some stupid stuff and ended up here."

Huh, well I guess it wasn't that much of a downer that I died. I mean I at least got to see Eridan in the most embarrassing position possible fur him. If Kanaya were here, I'm sure she'd be proudly regarding her work in creating this fine masterpiece of a complete disaster. I didn't really know what else to do with the seadweller at the moment, so I turned around and began walking in the direction I was going. If I had to have someone to explore the dreambubbles with, then I would rather it not be him. I suppose I was still a little ticked off at him fur trying to hit on me earlier. Just beclaws I wasn't getting anywhere in my quadrant life- aside from my wonderful but not quite perfect moiraillegiance with Equius- doesn't mean that I'm desperate enough to throw myself at any suitor who tries to woo me. Besides, he was aiming fur the red quadrant, and I had no plans to deter from my current crush on Karkat and immediately fall into the arms of a pompous seadweller. Sure, my feelings fur Karkat were- and probably still are- a silly little infatuation that I'd get over in a few sweeps or so, but that doesn't mean I'm immediately going to drop my flush crush on him fur someone I barely talk to. I really hope this being dead thing isn't permanent and that those of us who have died can return with our teammates beclaws that would really suck if we couldn't see them again...

"Nep, wait! Where are you going?" He protested behind me.

I refused to acknowledge his presence any longer and get on with my dreambubble life.

"Nepeta, please come back!"

Was he actually begging fur me of all trolls to come back fur him? I suppose it had to do with him being dead and lonely. I guess I can't help but feel a smidgen of sympathy fur the hopeless hipster. Plus, I was feeling a tad lonely wandering around all by myself, so I turned around and walked back over to him.

"Yes, what is it?" I asked, though I clearly knew what he wanted.

"Could I uh- caligulasAquarium requests fur the lovely arsenicCatnip to reconsider her traveling plans and allow fur half of a seadweller to accompany her?" He pleaded.

Man, he was really trying to sell it here. I guess I could bring him along if he was that lonely.

"Are you trying to flatter me with catpuns Mr. Ampurra?"

"Please I'm begging you-not that I'm proud of it- to bring me along. I'm sick an' tired a draggin' myself around this stupid horrorterror castle with nothing but giant statues and tapestries. There's no one in here aside from the occasional colossal tentacle, but that's not enough for contact or anythin'."

"I suppose I could take you along if you don't try to hit on me again."

"No worries. I have no intention of hitting on you again. Even if I am higher than him, I'd rather not have Eq come along and break my face for hitting on you. Well, I guess he'd have to do that to my body or something."

I looked at the floor," Equius is dead..."

"No glubbin' way! Are you serious?"

I frowned and raised an eyebrow at him," Why would I kid about that?"

"Who killed him? I'll bet it was Gamzee or something."

I sighed and rubbed my left wrist," Yeah it was Gamzee alright."

"Who'd have thought? Well...can you carry me? It's hard to get around when your ghost bottom half decides not to cooperate with ya and forces you to drag yourself across the floor."

With a shake of my head, I bent down and hoisted the hopeless seadweller onto my back and began walking back down the hallway. It was weird having to carry him around like this with his entrails dragging out behind like a weighted streamer of some sort, and I'd carried wild beasts at least twice my size befur and even my own lusus. Oh how I missed Pounce de Leon and the times she rode on my back when she got lazy or tired. She never forced me to carry her, and she was always playful when she wanted me to. I always carried her when she asked unless I was too exhausted to do it. Tears rolled down my cheeks, and I wondered to what extent ghosts could do things. I suppose ghosts cry even in fiction, so that wasn't too weird. I just really missed my lusus, and I wanted to see her again.

We walked, well I walked, fur who knows how long through the palace and casually explored the different rooms. There was a bit of a calming atmosphere that lingered in the air as I carried half of a seadweller on my back. Conversations came and went as we talked about multiple subjects to ease our boredom, and I eventually made it out the back end of the palace. A stretch of pale blue cobblestone lay before me as it faded into the inky blackness ahead of us. After a while, Eridan fell silent as he rode on my back, and we said nothing fur a good period of time as we traveled through the dark. I always wondered why he seemed so cross all the time. I understood why Karkat could be so grumpy, but I know he was kind at heart. As fur Eridan, I really didn't understand what his beef was other than his "destroy all landdwellers" genocide complex that he really didn't act upon. I suppose it was because Feferi kept him at bay when they were still moirails and the fact that he had a huge crush on her. Speaking of which, I wondered what would happen if we met her again.

"Hey, Nep, you have a flush crush on Karkat don't you?" he asked, breaking the silence.

"Yes, I do. Why?"

"I never understood why you found him so appealin'"

I rolled my eyes despite the fact that my pupils weren't exactly visible; I discovered that fact while passing a mirror in the palace.

"I don't see why that's any of your business."

"He's just as irritable with people as I am with you landdwellers, yet you like him and completely rejected me when I decided to take a shot at you."

I laughed," Okay, furst of all: I was not obligated in any way to accept your quadrant proposal just because you saved my life and got me into the game. Second of all: I still had, and still do have, a flush crush on Karkat, and I wasn't about to drop it right then and there just because you saved me like some prince in shining armor. Thirdly: The way you asked me out was in the creepiest and most unattractive way possible and wasn't romantic in any form, and the way you waggled your eyebrows at me was just disturbing. Fourth: Why should I even consider a relationship with you? I'm not even that close to you, we don't talk often, you're always hating landdwellers and going on about your stupid genocide plans, and you suddenly think that I'm going to drop my flush crush fur someone who just decided to hit on me?"

"It's not like he would've reciprocated anyways, Nepeta, since he was pining after Terezi. I don't think he would've given you a second chance given your habit to constantly roleplay and act like a meowbeast. Plus, Eq is always hangin' around you, and any lowblood with common sense wouldn't dare step near you if he was around."

At that moment, I dropped him like a squishy sack of fish guts and proceeded to wrap his entrails around my hand and began dragging him behind me.

"Nep! Why are you doing this?" he protested.

I'd had enough of him talking at the moment, so I proceeded to ignore him to the best of my ability as I dragged his sorry carcass through the afterlife. He groaned and began whining about how pitiful he was and how his quadrants had all failed, and normally I would listen and try to give him advice. That wasn't happening any time soon, so I continued to try blocking out his theatrics. I sensed that something was ahead, and my guess was correct as a few red sparkles floated befur me. A purr rumbled out of my throat, and I began to run while dragging a now panicked Eridan behind me. It wasn't long until I took in the sight of a red-clothed figure with curled horns and fairy wings. Looks like her explosion on the meteor wasn't pointless after all!

"Aradia!"

I called out to the winged figure, and she turned around to look at me. A huge smile broke out on her face as she recognized me and flew over.

"Nepeta! It's so good to see you and…Eridan? What on Alternia are you doing being dragged around?" she asked.

"I don't know ask her!" He pointed angrily at me.

"Why are you dragging around half of an Eridan?"

I shrugged," I got mad at him, so I decided to drag him around fur a bit. It's so weird to feel his squishy intestines!"

"I imagine you're used to it since you've dealt with wild animals before."

"Yeah I'm used to it."

"Excuse you two, but I am _not _a wild animal!"

Aradia leaned in and whispered into my ear," I beg to differ."

I laughed and unraveled Eridan's intestines befur giving Aradia a hug. It's not polite to hug someone while holding guts in your hands! She told me of why she had exploded on the meteor and that it was important fur that to happen in order to ascend to god tier. Well, she was certainly pretty with her sparkly fairy wings! I asked her if she'd seen Equius, but she had not seen him and would gladly join us to search fur him. She may have hated him, although it was probably a black romance, but she was willing to help me out as I dragged the hopeless seadweller behind me. Dreambubbles began to float into view and contained images of alternate timelines or past events that happened. I noticed that the ground began to turn into a dark blue color, and the sound of falling water reached my ears. Large expanses of rock rose all around us with carved out holes in the sides, and I realized where we were. This was the Land of Caves and Silence, and I had a feeling that Equius had to be around here somewhere.

Aradia flew a little further ahead to scout out the area in hopes of finding my blue-blooded moirail, and she was soon whizzing forward towards what looked like a crouching figure upon a pile of rock. My spirits lifted as I sprinted forward with Eridan protesting behind me, but I could care less about his problems at the moment as I ran to greet my dear moirail. Oh what a mess he was as he sat forlornly on a slab of rock, and he looked like his heart had been shattered even further as I approached him. He wasn't wearing his shades, and the look of pain when he saw me was devastating. I was expecting him to turn away because no doubt he blamed himself for me getting killed even though he wasn't there to see it; it was my fault after all fur not obeying his instructions fur once. I removed Eridan's intestines from my hand and casually dropped them before approaching Equius.

"Equius?" I tentatively called out, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"…Why are you here, Nepeta? I told you to wait in that back room. Was it too much for me to ask of you?"

"Equius, I-"

"Tell me, Nepeta, how it was so difficult for you to follow my orders for once? Yes, you have obeyed my orders before, but you have also disobeyed me at times. Why did this have to be the one time that you didn't obey?"

"I know I didn't listen to you, but what would have happened if I'd stayed put? Would you still have done what you did? What would I have done if I'd waited in that back room and then found that you were dead because you decided that now was the time to _submit _to Gamzee's highblooded status? Yes, I know I disobeyed your orders and decided to go into the vents to explore instead of waiting, but would that have changed anything?"

"What I did is none of your business, and I am upset that you deliberately disobeyed me! You shouldn't even be here right now! I wanted you to be safe which is why I told you to stay put!" he turned and snapped at me.

I'd never seen him look so hurt in my entire time of knowing him, but I suppose we'd both hurt each other by showing up in the dreambubbles. I couldn't blame him for looking so distraught as he did at the moment, and I knew it was my fault for hurting him like this. Yet I was still angry that he'd done something so stupid instead of fighting back. Surely he would've been able to handle Gamzee despite being lower than him.

"Okay maybe I wouldn't have ended up dead like I am right now, but what about you? You decided to concede defeat to Gamzee instead of trying to take him down! Why didn't you do anything? If you were really trying to keep me safe, then what was the point of letting your concerns with the hemospectrum get in the way of doing that? That doesn't sound like you were trying to protect me at all!" I retorted back.

This wasn't exactly the reunion I was hoping for, but I suppose this _was _going to be brought up sooner or later. However, I wasn't expecting for it to go this badly. It hurt to see Equius like this, and he appeared to be on the verge of crying. I was angry at what he did, but I was also angry with myself for hurting him as well. Maybe he would've died because of his actions, but at least he would've been happy knowing that I was safe and alive. That is, if Gamzee didn't decide to kill me afterwards, but who knows what would've happened if things went differently? A trip to another dreambubble would surely solve that problem, but now was not the time for that.

Equius turned away from me once again and sighed," I apologize for making you leave so soon after we've met again, but I wish to be left alone for the moment."

I nodded without another word and briefly touched his shoulder before leaving in silence. Aradia followed behind me carrying Eridan, but she didn't say a single word as we left the dreambubble and found ourselves in the black sea of dreambubbles. I'd never had any real fights with Equius, and any disagreements we had were brief and ended with one of us bowing to the other's wishes. I'm not sure whether to have called that a fight, but it was serious enough to warrant us spending time away from one another for the moment. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see a concerned Aradia flying nearby. I flashed a weak smile and patted her hand before looking ahead once again. Thankfully, Eridan remained silent and did not say something that would have me drag him by his intestines again. After awhile, a light shone ahead and dark, winged creatures gracefully flew through the sky.

Eridan cringed and flinched as he saw what was up ahead, and I wondered if those creatures were dangerous. Surely they wouldn't be able to harm dead people right? Aradia was a Time player as well, so she'd probably be able to stop them in their tracks or something. There was no stopping us as we neared the dreambubble, and Eridan still didn't say a word. I guessed that it had to be his planet from the way he immediately cringed at the sight of it, and I wondered what was so terrifying about those creatures. His land appeared to be a monochrome world with large chapels and tall, spiraling towers and the winged creatures became more defined as we entered the dreambubble. In a way, they resembled hissbeasts with a torso and wings but no arms.

"Where are we?" I asked him.

"This is the Land of Wrath and Angels. Those monsters flyin' up there are the angels," he replied.

"Monsters? Sure they appear a little unnerving, but are they really that terrifying, Eridan?" Aradia inquired.

"Trust me, Aradia, those things are terrifying," he insisted.

"Really? I seem to recall Sollux telling me that they weren't harmful at all, and you decided to open fire on them which made them hostile towards you," she grinned.

"I did not such thing!" He protested.

The dreambubble had us walk onto a long bridge when we entered, and we were currently approaching one of the large buildings with stained glass windows, which I'm sure would've been colored if the planet wasn't in monochrome. The doors were open fur some reason and checkered tile met our feet as we walked inside. It seemed quieter in here than it was outside, but that was probably due to the angels flying around outside. A pair of large doors was cracked with quiet organ music flowing through, and I curiously approached them. I peeked through the crack to see a figure with a bi-colored skirt, long, curly hair, and a gaping hole through her upper back where her chest would be if she turned around. I looked back at Eridan, and he raised an eyebrow in question. Slowly, I opened the doors to allow the three of us to go through and walked down the aisle to stand a few feet away from the dead heiress. Sensing there was a presence behind her, she turned around to face us with a solemn look and milky white eyes just like Eridan and I. Immediately her look soured, and she pulled out her trident. I quickly darted to the side, and Aradia dropped Eridan in surprise to get out of the way as Feferi threw her trident in anger.

"What do you think you're doing here?" She shouted, walking towards the fallen seadweller.

"Well Nepeta lead the way into this dreambubble of _my _land, and Aradia carried me in here because I was sort of chainsawwed in half by Kan. Also we weren't expecting you to be lingering in here of all places." He explained.

She angrily picked him up by the front of his shirt," You killed me!" You used your stupid wand and your stupid 'white science' and killed me! Did you lose your mind?!"

"Look you were comin' after me with your trident, and I had no other choice but to react out of self defense, Fef! Do you think I really wanted to kill you? No! All I wanted was for you to join me and Jack Noir, but Sollux had to step in an' tick me off. Then you got angry because you thought I killed him and came after me, so I had to defend myself!"

"You both should've listened to me and stopped when I asked you to, stupid!" She screamed at him.

Aradia and I stood by in silence as we watched the two seadwelling royals arguing with each other. At least my reunion with Equius hadn't been as bad as this, so I didn't feel too bad about our little argument. Feferi dropped Eridan in anger at one point and walked away to face the organ with her arms crossed looking absolutely miffed, and Eridan slowly rolled his torso from his back to his stomach and crawled over to Feferi. They were still bickering with each other when I felt a strange tingling sensation coming from my hands. I looked down to see purplish-pink sparks jump from my hands and a ring of the same color appeared beneath me. Aradia walked over to investigate before looking up to see the same thing happening to Feferi. A smile graced her red painted lips and she stepped back a little as the sparks became streamers of light that began to wrap around my body. Eridan stopped bickering with Feferi as he saw the change that was taking place and looked back to see the same happening to me.

Suddenly, I felt myself being pulled to Feferi like a magnet, and everything around us became a sea of purplish-pink light. Aradia and Eridan were nowhere to be seen, but I assumed they were left behind in the dreambubbles. As fur Feferi and I, we were both glowing white as our ghostly palms touched. It was warm and comforting fur some strange reason as our spirits merged into one, and suddenly we opened our eyes as one mind. Our hair reached mid-back with one half only reaching above the shoulder. My trench coat remained, but it was the same color as the light that surrounded us except a darker shade. Speaking of darker shades, our hair was an even darker and a little more purple than my trench coat that we wore.

In place of legs, we had a white ghostly tail streaming beneath us. Feferi's goggles were on our face, and it was a strange sensation to feel on my part. I think we were merged into a kernelsprite or something, and I had us hiss in anger as I saw the one who made us standing there. That stupid juggalo clown in his equally stupid god tier clothing with an even more stupid codpiece sticking out of his crotch fur all to sea. Gross. He gave a pleased smile, and I immediately wanted to slice his already scarred face. A human girl stood by watching in awe, and she looked like she was related to Rose. A friendly smile bloomed on her face, and she walked over to greet our sprite form. Her name was Roxy Lalonde.

"Who are you?" She asked us.

"I'm Fefetasprite, and I will be your guide fur SBURB! I'm reely excited to meet you, and I shore hope we will get along!"

We are Feferi Peixes and Nepeta Leijon, and as of this moment we are very much alive.

* * *

I had this idea in mind for awhile, and it all started out with me imagining Nepeta dragging Eridan around by his guts in the dreambubbles for comedic purposes. I'm not normally one to do that type of stuff, but I thought it was funny.


End file.
